It’s interesting to realize that just 10 years ago, roles like social media managers did not even exist.

Today, just about every company has a social media presence and have a dedicated member of their organization managing it. And because social media management is a relatively new skill, it’s not that surprising for many of those who are just starting as social media managers to ask what it takes to be a great one.

If you’re about to join a new company as a social media manager, here are 5 essential things you should do in your first 5 days.

1. Get to Know the Teams You’ll Be Working With

One of your first responsibilities as social media manager is to develop a social media plan. And before you can do that, you’ll need to meet who you’ll be relying on to help you put that plan into action.

Every social media marketing structure is different, but it typically involves content creation, community management, and public relations. Regardless of the size of your company, here are the teams or individuals you will likely work with:

Content Creators

You’ll be working closely with content creators. After all, they’ll be the ones creating the content you’ll be posting across all your platforms. It’s true that some companies outsource their content; this doesn’t mean that you can skip developing a relationship with them. In fact, forging a strong collaboration is more critical if you’re outsourcing your content because it will ensure that delivery and quality of content is consistent.

Events

Your social team should be developing connections with your company’s events team because they’ll give you access to your brand’s newsworthy events. They’ll take you behind-the-scenes where you’ll get the best material for video content you can steam on Facebook Live and Twitter or images to post on Instagram.

Sales

Increasingly sales teams identify and nurture leads over social media. Rely on them to use their social outreach and prospecting skills to find prospects on your social media channels. Without their insight, you won’t discover leads nor will you identify if your social media strategies are effective.

Community

The community manager will promote and boost your brand awareness on social networks by creating their own social persona. They will then go out to actively connect with the online community to find potential customers and advocate the brand. Typically, community managers deal with those who haven’t heard of your brand before.

2. Evaluate Current Performance

Even if you’re the first social media manager that they’ve ever hired, it’s highly unlikely that the brand has no social media presence at all. At the very least, they may already have a Facebook business page.

And if you’re the new social media manager, then you’ve got an existing social media history to audit. Assess the current state of your company’s social media to help outline new goals for your social media strategy. It will also help you determine what social media tools your team needs to learn and if you need to implement a social media management dashboard, assuming they don’t already utilize one.

Here’s a quick audit checklist:

List all corporate social media accounts

List all social media tools (analytics, publishing, listening, etc)

Evaluate their current performance, including the performance and needs for the various tools

Determine who has access to all accounts and tools

Ensure that everyone who needs access has access

3. Know the Competition

Different brands have different social media strategies. However, because your competitors are aiming to get the attention of your target audience, it’s smart to know what they’re up to and more importantly, how successful they are at it.

Find out who your competitors are by using Google. Search for keywords and phrases that you want to rank for, and you’ll likely find results similar to your own business.

Who does your target audience follow? Do any of the accounts belong to brands similar to yours? Of those brands, who do you feel are your biggest threats? When you recognize which accounts those are, you’ll know who your biggest competition is.

What social networks are they on? How often do they post? What are their numbers like? Which of their posts have gotten to the most number of likes, comments, shares, or retweets? Tweepsmap can provide great insight on your competitors’ activities on Twitter

Knowing your competitor’s engagement numbers demonstrate how strong their social media presence is. Recognizing their strengths and weaknesses creates opportunities for you and should influence your own business strategy.

4. Update your Team on the Latest Social Media Trends

As a social media manager, you should be aware of new developments and trends. Social media is constantly changing. What was “viral” one moment can be completely forgotten the next.

It’s your job to ensure that your team is also up to speed. Here are a few social media trends your team should be updated on:

Paid ads

Algorithms have changed the way that users interact with content on social media. Most people don’t realize this is why they see specific posts on their Facebook and Instagram feeds. To make sure your content is reaching the right people at the right time, you’ll need to turn also to paid advertising.

Social selling

Social selling is about leveraging your social network to find the right prospects, build trusted relationships to achieve your sales goals. Social selling aims to prove that you are an active participant in your industry, enables you to focus on the right prospects, position yourself as a subject matter expert, and help you build trust with prospects.

Video content

Video content has become one of the hottest digital marketing trend. Text and images unquestionably still have a place in your content marketing plan. However, quality video is quickly becoming the tool that gives brands the highest level of reach and increased engagement on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

5. Listen to Your Followers

One of the first things you’ll want before the end of your first week as a social media manager is to simply listen to your brand’s followers. Listening to what your customers are saying can give you insight into what they think about any aspects of your marketing campaign.

To help you manage your brand’s reputation, you need to monitor your social pages. You run the risk of rumors and inaccurate information being spread about your company if you neglect to pay attention to what people are saying about your brand.

Listen to what is being said so that you can immediately address any problems before matters escalate. Learning about your customers’ experiences allows you to make necessary adjustments to your products and services. By actively listening, you’ll know what part of your social media marketing strategy needs tweaking.